Wire: Obama Ends "War On Terrorism"

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2009 -- It's official, The Washington Times said, the U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war."

Newswire services today reported that President Barack Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

"The President does not describe this as a 'war on terrorism,'" said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a "new way of seeing" the fight against terrorism.

The only terminology that Mr. Brennan said the administration is using is that the U.S. is "at war with al Qaeda."

On July 28, the U.S. military in Afghanistan stopped releasing body counts of insurgents believed killed in operations.

Recently, Obama said "victory" in Afghanistan isn't the United States' goal.

In a factually incorrect comparison, Obama told ABC News, "I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."

General MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender from representatives of the the Empire of Japan who signed the 'Japanese Instrument of Surrender' in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. Emperor Hirohito was never there.

(Report from newswire sources.)

Source: White House: 'War on terrorism' is over

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